Season’s Eatings! Christmas Foodstuffs for your dog to avoid…

Christmas means lots of extra food around in the house - leftovers, treats, gift chocolates, booze, party nibbles etc etc. Bliss. But as we all know, they can potentially be a little too tempting for the Dog of the House.

Recent statistics from the British Veterinary Association’s Voice of the Veterinary Profession survey showed that 77.3% of vets saw cases of sultana or raisin-related toxic ingestion in dogs in the last 12 months, an increase from 69% in 2022. Raisins seem to be the biggest offender (too much wine by the time pudding comes around maybe?!) but 58.1% also reported other toxin ingestions such as chocolate, the sweetner xylitol and decorations such as holly and mistletoe.

More info here but in summary the big festive frighteners to particularly watch out for are

• Chocolate

• Mince pies

• Christmas pudding

• Stollen

• Fruit cake

• Sage and onion stuffing

• Bones

• Nuts (especially macadamia)

• Fatty and rich foods

• Alcohol

• Xylitol-sweetened foods

• liquorice

• Grapes

• Onions and garlic
  
  Another danger is of course, cheese. As one of our HoM guests discovered a couple of years ago, when he (You know who you are Labrador Douglas….) rose from beneath the Christmas table in true Jaws fashion and emptied the entire cheese board in one graceful sweep. The cheese didn’t harm him, but our gluttonous glares drilled into him for days afterwards!

  So maybe the real reminder here is that however careful one is, stuff can happen. And if, heaven forbid, it does, be ready with tlc, phone numbers, and a very lovely box of emergency chocolates for your on-call vet…